cnn: We know we didn't have the right kind of leadership ... where government agencies were getting information from watching cable television rather than have a flow of information," McCain said during an event at Xavier University in New Orleans.
"It was not only a perfect storm as far as its physical impact ... it was a perfect storm as far as the federal, state and local governments' inability."
"Never again will there be a mismanaged natural disaster," he said, later assuring the crowd that "it will never happen again in this country, you have my commitment and my promise."
McCain was in New Orleans on the fourth day of a tour through some economically struggling Democratic states, trying to convince voters he's not necessarily your typical Republican.
He made stops this week in Selma, Alabama; Youngstown, Ohio, and Inez, Kentucky.
and is looking like a pretty good guy.
cnn: As well as touring, McCain is trying to put out a political fire set by members of his own party -- a controversial ad slamming Sen. Barack Obama that is running in North Carolina.
After McCain had effectively clinched the Republican nomination, he called on his party to run a respectful, above the fray campaign.But the ad, conceived by local North Carolina Republicans, appears to defy that call.
"For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his cube listening to his pastor," the TV ad says.
The ad then airs comments from Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who says: "And then wants us to sing "God Bless America?" No, no, no. Not "God Bless America," God [expletive] America."
McCain's campaign released an e-mail he sent North Carolina's GOP chairwoman Linda Daves that asked her not to run the ad.
"In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement," he wrote. "This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign."
North Carolina Republicans refused to pull the ad.
"I can't dictate to them. But I want to be the candidate of everybody. I want to be the candidate of Republicans and Democrats and independents," he said Wednesday.
if he could modernize his views on war, he might just be the next president.
